The March of the Beekeepers

Today 38 Degrees members joined hundreds of people in a “March of the Beekeepers” at Parliament Square.

The demonstration was hosted by 38 Degrees along with Avaaz, Buglife, Environmental Justice Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network UK, RSPB, and the Soil Association.

Certain pesticides called neonicotinoids are being blamed by scientists across the world for the decline in bee numbers. On Monday, Owen Paterson our environment minister will take part in a big european vote on whether to stop these pesticides being used. Countries such as France and Italy have already taken steps to ban them, but our government is dragging its heels.

With hundreds of us descending on parliament we showed that not only is there a mountain of evidence against these pesticides but also a huge weight of public opinion in favour of stopping them.

The petitions from all the organisations were delivered to 10 Downing Street. This included the 285,000 signatures on the 38 Degrees petition. If you’ve not signed the petition yet, you can do so here.

Can you help spread the word and make sure that everyone is talking about the bees before he goes to vote? Owen will find it hard to vote against a ban if he knows that public opinion is completely against him.